he who blesledness desires To that above all other thing aspires To love and give due praise is better far Than to be lov'd or to be praised are To him that hath subsistance of his own Ev'n I my self whose heart is overgrown With imperfections love without respect Of any end but meerly to affect Those whom I love and rather would have done Ten thousand kindnesses that sought for one And Lord if such a failing love as mine May reach to this how infinite is thine And Oh how far art thou from things so vain As loving meerly to be lov'd again By such poor worms as we whose best affection Is but a passion full of imperfection Indeed thou bid'st us love thee but for what Save to preserve us capable of that Which we receive and that we might not miss The comfort which in Virtue placed is And of whose hapless want he cannot chuse But feel the loss whose conscience doth accuse Yea thou commandest love that love may make Our nature of thy nature to partake Without which quality there cannot be The true Communion 'twixt us and thee Which is the very height of all our bliss Or which indeed the Essence of it is For could we be of thee Oh God! approv'd Or could we of all creatures be belov'd Tho' we no love return'd nor had in us An object for the love conferred thus Which were impossible we ne'retheless Should suffer by our own unworthiness An inward Hell and to our selves invent Occasions of continual discontent As to those envious men it may appear Who causlesly injurious often are To those their honest neighbours whom they find To them as friendly as they are unkind For outward plagues pursueth so this sin Nay also so affects him still within And till his nature be depraved quite His own Injustice will his heart affright Yea they whose Crimes are pardon'd are not free From suff'rings though they well assured be That neither God nor Man will blame them for The passed Frailties which they do abhor For then our hearts will grieve do what we can If they have injur'd either God or Man And then more favour is vouchsaf'd to them The more themselves they censure and condemn Therefore although I can forgive my Friend Yet I would have him wary to offend Lest when he finds his error griev'd he be Within himself that he hath wronged me And in his heart a torment suffer should From which my love would keep him if I could Ev'n so oh Lord my God though in degree More infinite than can conceived be And in a manner which I am not able By any Figure to make demonstrable In meer Good-will to Man thou pleased art To preach unto his ear or to his Heart Those Dutys which to thee from him belong That he unto himself may do no wrong Because we seem a great esteem to have Of Love and Praise and thereby to receive Content and profit thou dost oft propose By us to be perform'd such things as those As Dutys which are much of thee desired And at our hand for thy avail required But doubtless thou dost only seem to be Like us that thou might'st make us like to thee And that if thee we love we might be won To do as for thy sake what should be done For our own Good As Parents kind and wise Have dealt with Children in their Infancies And whereas Lord it hath been said by thee That thou wilt of thine honour Jealous be Thou only Jealous art lest our neglect Of thee our own perdition may effect Thou dost things Honourable and though none Did praise thee for them they should still be done Thine honour is essential That we give And which from us thou pleasest to receive Is but an accident which ever may Without thy loss be present or away And when thou either thanks or praise requirest To perfect us those Dutys thou desirest This we long time have so misunderstood As if we did conceive thou wert a God Affected with Self-Love or Fruitless Fame Although we mannerly express the same Yea we have dream'd that thou this world did'st make And us and all things for thy Glorys sake In such a sense and for such praises too As we effect when our best works we do I would we thought no worse or would we knew What damnable absurdities ensue Our groundless Fancies For by them thou gain'st Some fear but little hearty love obtain'st By these false thoughts of thee we do encrease Our own self Love and all vain gloriousness Within our selves hence is all we intend Our whole endeavours for a private end And that a froward peevishness is own'd In most of all our actions to be found For who can possibly be just or wise Who to this God imputes absurdities Lord now we better know thee and are shown Both by thy words and works what should be done Our selves we yet improve not as we ought By what thy Workings and thy Word have taught But both Self-love and Vanity have share Ev'n in our Actions that most pious are We Counsel we Relieve Write Preach and Pray That Honour Gain or Pleasure bring it may To our own Persons and would little care How wicked and unhappy others are Had we our aims and still might them possess Amid'st our Sins and their unhappiness Ev'n I my self who love a better mind Do in my self so much corruption find That I confess received Injuries More mov'd me to reprove Impieties Than mine own goodness and that from my sin My best performances did first begin For which let pardon Lord vouchsafed be And more sincere hereafter make thou me For this may peradventure be the cause We preach thy Gospel and pronounce thy Laws And write without effect ev'n this that our Corruption makes the means to want the power It might have had Else 't is because we hide Thy Love and have that saving Grace deny'd Which thou to all extendest and which none Shall want who striveth to lay hold thereon To help amend these faults now I have said What I believe thy Spirit hath convey'd Into my heart If I have err'd in ought Let me oh Lord by thee be better taught If truth I speak let other men from hence Partakers be of my Intelligence Make me and them thy love so fully view That we in our affections may be true And give us Grace the truth of them to show In doing well the Duties which we owe. Amen A Metrical Paraphrase Upon the CREED SInce it befiâ—â— that I account should give What way unto Salvation I believe Of my profession here the sum I gather First I cofess a Faith in God the father In God who without Helper or Partaker Was of himself the Worlds Almighty Maker And first gave Time his being who gave birth To all the Creatures both of Heaven and Earth Our everlasting welfare doth consist In his great mercies and in Jesus Christ The second person of that Three in
to go we must confess But yet it shews a way to happiness And they who can but love it when they know it Shall either be vouchsafed strength to go it By mediate help or by immediate Grace Exalted be to their desired place It cannot merit Love But it may shew Whether or no our Love be false or true Though 't is not life It is the death of Sin Whereby the life of grace doth first begin To shew that living Faith wherein consists The truth of their profession who are Christ's And they are not suspected without cause False Christians who conform not to these Laws It is a needful Tutor though it stand With looks still frowning and with Rod in hand 'T is truly Good though Ill thereby we know And at befriends us though it seem a Foe It all condemns not though it puts in fear It brings to Christ and then it leaves us there In brief this Law shall ever be in force Though from Believers God remove the Curse It shall in Essence never fail a jot Although some Accidents continue not And therefore they whose Faith shall them prefer Observe it as a good REMEMBRANCER To these for comfort and encouragement The promise which attends it we present With all the circumstances which may give Assurances of what they well believe Without those Plagues or Terrors which we find Presented to correct a slavish mind For they that love their Founder need no bands But love to keep them true to these commands Love is the Laws fulfilling 't is that end To which both Laws and all good Actions tend And he that Loves unto himself is made A Law whereto we nothing need to add Before the rest our Muse to fright them sets The Tipes of punishments and horrid Threats If either may bring home the Soul that errs God's be the praise the Comfort of it theirs And let me share the prayers and the bliss Of those that shall pe profited by this Amen I. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me c. Pharoh by great wonders wrought To acknowledge God was brought And had Reasons light to see Who his only God should be Had he well that Guift employ'd Special Grace had been enjoy'd But no use thereof he made And so lost the gift he had Stubborn too the Fool did grow And ran headlong to his woe Command I. Serve but one God and let him be That God who made and ransom'd thee TO such as love our God of Love makes known A Duty and a benefit bestown That they might know the object of their Creed And in the way of Righteousness proceed For by the Preface of what follows here A freedom from a Bondage doth appear And by the Substance of this great Command A Duty we may likewise understand To them whom no kind usage may perswade From sinful Paths till they afraid are made We here exhibit Pharoh as a chief Of those who suffered for an Vnbelief Join with contempt of God that such from thence Might moved be to faithful penitence To them that shall with Reverence and fear Receive the holy precept which they hear We shew with love and mercy how they may Observe the Streight and Shun the crooked way There is one God alone That God is he By whom we formed and reformed be And they who serve another or deny His Attributes commit impiety This God that 's God indeed though he might say My will and pleasure is you shall obey Me only as your Lord and unto us No reason render why it should be thus Proceeds not so but hath declared why We should accept him for our Deity And peradventure this vouchsafed he To teach them knowledge who his Viccars be And shew to us by being meek and kind How from false Gods the true one we may find For to be God is to be good and so In Goodness infinite to overflow That all may tast thereof excepting none Such is my God and he is God alone The Egyptian Bondage tipified all The Race of Adam in their native Thrall And as their temporal Saviour Moses than Left not behind one hoof much less a man Inslav'd to Pharoh so the blessed Son Of this Great God hath ransom'd every one From that sad house of Bondage and of pain Where we without Redemption else had lain For which great favour he from us doth crave That we no other God but him should have And that we love him with a Reverent awe Which is the whole fulfilling of this Law This Gracious God by many is rejected And as they understand or stand affected They take or make up New ones of such things As almost to contempt the Godhead brings He of himself would make some Deity Who his own power so much doth magnify As if by that he thought to gain access To present and to future happiness He makes the World his God who thinketh fit To love to follow serve and honour it As many do and they who much incline To love this God are enemies to mine He makes his Lust a God who doth fulfil In every thing his own unbridled Will This Tyrant many serve Yea this is He Who makes them Bondslaves whom God setteth free He makes the worst men Gods who doth obey Their Pleasures in an unapproved way Or their imperious threatning so much feareth As think it from his Duty him deterreth He makes the Devil God who doth believe By evil means good blessings to receive Which very many very often doe Whose words deny him and defie him too But some of us not only Guilty stand Of being breakers of this first Command By serving Gods beside and more than him Who from Death Sin and Hell did us redeem But either we neglect him also quite Or practise works to him so opposite That into worse impieties we fall Than such as yet confess no God at all For by distrust self-love backsliding fear Inconstancy Presumption fruitless Care Impatience Grudging Frowardness or Pride With other such our God we have deny'd More oft than once and oftner fear we shall â—nto this error through our frailty fall This Law in some degree is also broke Unless we to our powers due care have took To Shun each cause of breaking it The Chief â—s Ignorance the ground of misbelief The next is to be oft and willingly Among Professors of Idolatry The Third is Servile fear which many ways The Heart unto Idolatry betrays The last not least is when the sway we give To any Lust or Sin For thus believe Such men to gain the full of their delight Will change their God or leave Religion quite Yea they who hate at first so gross a Sin Are by the Devil this way hooked in This Meditation here had found an end But that there are some others who offend Against this Law in such a high Degree As that they must not quite unmention'd be The truest God confessed is by them Their only God They serve
despise Her Government we often Scandalize We slight her Blessings we her Counsels hate We of her Ornaments and her Estate Dispoil her her best Children we betray And when she would embrace we run away In all which things we disobey this Law And vengeance both on Soul and Body draw God grant this wickedness we may repent Before he change into a Punishment The Blessing promis'd For he from the Land Will root the breakers of this great Command That men may know the danger to contemn A good Condition when 't is off'red them Some are already gone And though few see Or will confess that they afflicted be For this offence yea though few think that they Were rooted out because they went away By their own choice Yet God to them hath shew'd Their error by some Plagues which have ensu'd Since their departure that they might perceive How frowardly they did their Mother leave And that the truly penitent might there Enjoy the Blessing they did forfeit here God open so their eyes in their distress And so instruct them in that Wilderness To which they run that though like Sarahs Maid They fly from her with whom they should have staid They may divert our heavy Condemnation And leave a blessing to this Generation Lord Grant thou this and that those may not shame Their Brethren who departed without blame To civilize the Lands which know not yet Their blindness nor what Sins they do commit And gracious God preserve a Heart in me Which to this Law may still obedient be Amen VI Thou shalt do no murder c. Murther leaves a bloody stain Which unpurged will remain Till a Flood of Tears it cost Or till blood for blood be lost Nor old age nor length of time Cleared Joab of this Crime Nor his Power though great it was Nor a priviledged place Could his head from vengeance hide But for this Offence he dy'd Command VI. The Makers Image do not spill Where God commands thee not to kill None had been safe unless the bloody sin Forbidden here had both restrained been And still pursued mischiefs to prevent With open and with secret punishment Therefore Almighty God who hath decreed That he who sheds his Brothers blood shall bleed Attends it still with vengeance and the Sword According to the dreadful sounding word Pronounc'd long since to David shall not leave Him or his house who doth of life bereave A guiltless man till for that crying guilt Some Blood of his untimely shall be split For though like him whom here we represent Men may by greatness keep off punishment Till they are old it will their heels pursue And give them at the last their bloody due For I have rarely heeded one in ten Of those rash-headed and fool-hardy men Who as they fondly term it fairly kill But they or their have either suffered still Deaths violent or died in their prime Or Issueless fo this Blood-spilling Cirme Yea and for ougit is known the self-same Doom On those who yet escape e're long may come And if the fair done Murthers have these Fates How shall he scape that foul ones perpetrates Of this offence let all men conscience make For their own weal or for their Childrens sake Whom they beget For in the same degree Wherein they murther it repaid shall be Or their own persons or on some of those By whom her due just vengeance may not lose If thou hast took away the life of Fame From any thou shall suffer in thy Name If by unchristian Anger or by hate Thou shalt occasion what may ruinate Anothers Being in thy Generation Or in thy self expect retaliation Unless Repentance in a Fount of tears Shall cleanse that stain which nothing else outwears Oppression makes the Poor his life to leese Like Poysons which destroy men by degrees With lingring Deaths and in an age or two That Sin doth all those Families undo Which were enrich'd thereby yea I have seen Their Sons who by oppression rais'd have been To fall from large Estates by some and some Till they to such base poverty have come As brought them to the Gallows Therefore they Act murthers who take means of life away By an oppressing hand and murther not The poor alone but those whom they begot He is in Heart a Murtherer who prays For others deaths and in effect he slays Who can but will not save it to afford Deliverance with Justice will accord Nor from this error are they counted free Who wittingly shall an occasion be To other men of that which may intice By word or by example to this vice Such are those Hacksters who themselves don me Men of the Sword but sure enough I am Men of a base Condition these are they Who flesh our blooming Gentry in the way Of brutish Quarrels and their minds possess With Rage instead of sober Manliness Just of their stamp are they who shall provoke Their Friends unto Revenge for what was spoke In drink or passion making them believe They were disgraced if they should forgive And so the Fools are urged to pursue Those wicked Counsels which at last they rue Another way as faulty are those men Who publish by the tongue or by the pen Those Heresies and Fancies which undo Here and for aye themselves and others too These last are out of question deeply dy'd In this red Crime though some of them can hide Their Guilt with holy shews The former sort Though well esteem'd and such as none report Or take for Murtherers would soon be cast If an impartial verdict should be past There is a murthering poyson in some words And Flatteries are otherwhile the Swords That Kill their hearers though when they infect They do not murther by a line direct Moreover other while unkindness may Strike dead a Gentle heart and such as play False play in Love as when they do allure And causlesly reject may soon procure Untimely Death But such like youthful Crimes Though jested at bring vengeance many times He that by lawful means doth blood require For blood unjustly Spilt with more desire To satisfy his rage than to prefer True Justice is a parcel Murtherer And so are such who practise to encrease A publick Concord or mens private peace In some degree of Murtherers are they Who to their might remove not for away All such occasionings as may begin Or help to perfect this inhumane Sin And therefore by this Law we are forbidden To keep an Enmity in secret hidden That may provoke Revenge which to prevent A Duty doth precede the Sacrament Of Christian Vnity and they commit Against this Law who fail to practise it Pride Wrath Scorn Avarice Wine in excess Wrongs Jeers Neglects and Jests with bitterness With other such which either are or draw Occasions on to violate this Law Are breaches of it And though few suspect Because these are but breaches indirect That such enormities unpunish't be For that but seldom they inflicted see Immediate
And I a worker now desire to be Who may if thou enable to proceed Improve my willingness unto the Deed Deny it not Oh God! but from this day Ev'n to the latest moment of my stay Vouchsafe unto me thy assisting Grace That I may run a warrantable Race And keep this Law and all thy Laws entire In work in word and also in desire Amen Though no flesh this Law obey In it self In Christ it may Though it frighteth us for sin Yet our peace it ushers in And in us prepareth place For the saving Law of Grace When this Grace hath taught to Love Hardest works will easy prove And that sin we shall abhor Which we doted on before THE Epilogue The Law from God's meer love proceeds Though strict it seems and Terror breeds NOW having well observ'd this glorious Law A Creature cloath'd with Majesty and awe Methinks the Body of it seems to me Compos'd of such essential parts to be That he may find who rightly from them shall All as but one each one of them as all And that who ever breaks or keepeth one Observes or breaketh all in what is done As will appear to him who well attends How ev'ry Precept on the rest depends He cannot possibly or love or fear One God aright who willfully doth err In Idol worshippings in vainly using God's holy Name In holy Times abusing Or in permitting so perverse a nature As to abuse Himself or any Creature Belonging to this God with such a mind As may Contentment in such evils find And what is of this Law averr'd we may In ev'ry other Precept boldly say Moreover I conceive it cannot be Of less impossibility that he Who gives the Creature ev'ry way his right Should in his heart his good Creator slight Or actually offend him without sense And sorrow for so hainous an offence He that right Conscience makes to keep one Law Of breaking all the other stands in awe He that is Parents honours as he ought Can never favour Murther in his thought Or thirst for Vengeance never will his eyes Or heart or members act Adulterys No due from any Creature will he take He dares of none conceive receive or speak Vntruths or slanders He will never crave Or by a secret longing wish to have What may net be desir'd Nor ought commit Which his profession may not ill befit But penitence will smite him for the deed And in his heart a faithful sorrow breed Much less will he grow wilfully to blame In Prophanation of Gods Days his Name His Worship or his Essence For in one Well doing all good Dutys will be done And this which from one Law is here exprest May really be said of all the rest The like we may as doubtlesly averr Of them who ' gainst one Law perversly err Begin at which you please they so are chain'd All sins are in the breach of one contain'd One wickedness contracts another still And that another either to fulfill Or hide the first until all guilt comes in And wheels him round the cursed Orbe of Sin For what hath he to bar him from the rest Who but in one hath wilfully transgrest What other sin would he have left undone Which might have hindred his beloved one Or if perpetually he do not act All wickedness and ev'ry filthy Fact Why is it so unless perchance because His finite Nature cannot break all Laws At once in Act Nor his desires extend To ev'ry thing wherein he might offend For ev'ry sacred Law is in his Will Inclusively at least infringed still And Guiltiness would actually appear If power and fit occasions present were For as the Laws fair Body is compos'd Of portions qualified and dispos'd In such a manner that we planily see The perfect Essence of the whole to be In ev'ry part so likewise hath our Sin An ugle Body and each Limb therein Containeth whether it be great or small Essentially the perfect Guilt of all And by this Body Death a means hath found To give to all Mankind a mortal wound But prais'd be God his Grace provided hath A Light a Guard an Armour and a Path By which we may be quite delivered from The Body of this Death and also come To walk the way of life which else had bin For ever barr'd against us by our sin The Lamb of God by whom we do possess Redemption Wisdom Justice Holiness With ev'ry matchless token of his Love The Guilt of that transgression doth remove Which woundeth first our Nature and from him We have a cure for ev'ry actual Crime He hath fulfilled what we could not keep He gives us power to walk who could not creep He paid the price of that which we had bought He got our Pardon e're the same we sought He bore the stripes for us which we did merit He purchas'd Crowns that we might them inherit Our Fears he doth prevent our loss restore And to the true Believers tendreth more Than Adam lost Yea he doth freely give To ev'ry Soul a power which may believe And persevere if well he shall employ The Talents and the Grace he doth enjoy And with a mind in all Temptations meek This power in Christ not in her self doth seek Ev'n they that perish till they do contemn God's profer'd Love potentially in them Retain this power by God's Free grace until Their Flesh seduc'd like Eve doth move their Will Like Adam to consent and then to Act A wickedness and to approved the Fact Against their Conscience For then God departs From their polluted and rebellious Hearts And back returneth not until from thence That Guilt be washed by true penitence The means whereof he also must bestow Or else into obdurateness they grow Affirm we may not that God will not come To any whom he so departeth from Twice thrice or oftner For we cannot know How far the limits of his Mercys go Nor by what measure or by what degree Of wilfulness he so displeas'd shall be As to forsake for ever since he may Shew mercy where he pleaseth while the day Of life-time lasteth there is hope of Grace Fore every sinful Soul of Adams race Just Job confesseth that God oft assaysr To draw the sinner from delicious ways Job 33. 14. The raising up of lazarus from death When he had four days yeilded up his breath Inferreth also that some few obtain God's mercy who had dead and stinking lain In their transgressions till there was no place For help by outward means or common grace But this his mercy is the highest pitch And if a God who is in mercy rich Vouchsafe it any where he doth afford Much more than he hath promis'd in his word For though he may confer it when he please Yet to have left such promises as these Had better'd none but made those worse by far Who for the Grace obtained thankless are Oh who enough can praise thy matchless Love Most gracious God! Who pleasest from